Breaking the bonds of Bonded Labor

In Firojpur, a remarkable group of children who were recently working as slaves alongside their parents are now learning to read and write in a simple bamboo bungalow.  They are students at TEN's Freedom School in Uttar Pradesh, India. The hands now weilding pencils held instead the tools of heavy labor, working in quarries or toiling on farms from dawn to dusk, and the future seemed devoid of other alternatives.    Millions of families are enslaved in bonded labor across South Asia. They never see the benefits of their dirty, dangerous or degrading work -Instead, they are working off ‘debts’ typically less than $100, which only accumulate over time as the system is designed to keep them in bondage indefinitely. Threats of violence, or actual violence, serve to keep them enslaved, and many do not realize that bonded labor is an illegal practice.

Bonded labor is a very common form of slavery in South Asia, destroying the lives and futures of millions of people.  in this illegal and inhumane practice, individuals, or more commonly, entire families perform backbreaking work for no pay, to work off ‘debts’ - often small debts of less than $100 which only accumulate over time as the system is designed to keep them in permanent bondage. In many cases, generations of a family will become trapped in a cycle of bonded labor and steadily accruing debt. Threats of violence, or actual violence, serve to keep them enslaved, and many do not realize that bonded labor is an illegal practice. Like all slaves, they are powerless over their lives, and thus vulnerable to all kinds of physical and sexual abuse.  Sojourner Truth said ‘I freed a thousand slaves, and I could have freed a thousand more, if only they knew that they were slaves’. She could have been talking about bonded labor slavery, because people in bonded labor slavery usually do not realize that they are enslaved - they work for no pay, in dirty dangerous or degrading conditions, through force, fraud and coercion. As a parent, it’s hard for me to fathom. What if every single day, instead of putting my kids on the school bus, I sent them off to crush rocks in the blistering sun - kids as young as 4 or 5?

In Firojpur, a village in Chandauli district, Uttar Pradesh, India, a group of kids who were formerly enslaved alongside their parents in bonded labor slavery, are now learning to read and and write in a simple bamboo bungalow. The hands now holding pencils formerly wielded tools of heavy labor –working in quarries, or toiling on farms from dawn to dusk. 

Children growing up in bonded labor do not receive education, so they grow up with no skills or ability to earn money outside of the bonded labor system, which perpetuates the system of slavery.

Thankfully, in Firojpur, we are working with an amazing organization called MSEMVS which rescues entire communities from slavery. They start by convincing parents to let their children attend school, rather than working.   Our Freedom school also serves as a community center, from which MSE workers reach out to enslaved families in the village. They hold awareness camps, talk with local government members, doctors and teachers and place pressure on slave-holders to allow children to go to school, gradually raising awareness of the fact that bonded labor is illegal and exploitative. Ultimately, the entire village will be enabled to leave slavery as a group, so that no one family can be targeted for reprisals.

Job training and economic options are then offered to the villagers, so that they can develop sustainable livelihoods and remain slavery-free. This process has been successfully implemented in many villages throughout the state, with the support of Free the Slaves and others. When Free the Slaves and MSE approached us about the idea of sponsoring our own Freedom School in Firojpur, we were delighted.

Bhanuja Sharan, Director of MSEMVS, explains “In August 2008, MSEMVS began to take up cases of trafficking in Chandauli district. We found that debt bondage, especially in stone quarrying was prevalent in several areas. So we have identified several villages where they will begin their full intervention. Chandauli is a 50 KMs far from Varanasi and situated at the border of Bihar state. This district known as the district of poor and the land and other resources are centralized with the rich landlords. The landlords occupied waste lands and the poor people only have to work on their lands. Some part of Chandauli district also affected by Naxali movement (insurgents)
There are 67 children at work because of debt bondedness of their parents and we are trying to take them back in education The families in this village belong to “Dalit” caste. Most of them are illiterate; there has been no school in the village until now. Being a remote village it is neglected by the state officials. We need to structure the school in a systematic way, form the self-help groups for the women and start skill training programmes here. By this intervention MSEMVS see a movement that should emerge within this poor and marginalized community.

MSEMVS will work in this community with a rights based approach. The children’s work time will be converted into school time and the people; women will be organized and empowered for getting their rights by themselves. We follow a condensed curriculum based on Formal school curriculum so that they will be able to mainstream in formal school after 3 years spending in the TEN Freedom School. MSEMVS also developed a Human Rights Curriculum by which we try to develop a sense of basic human rights within the groups of children. We will form different committees of the children at each school for ensuring their participation in human rights activities and learning leadership skills.

MSEMVS has targeted 12 villages with high level of bonded laborers and has established schools in each one of the villages serving 50-75 children each, ages 6-14. The schools and teachers serving each village become the driving force for change in the area. They hold awareness camps; talk with local government members, doctors and teachers and place pressure on employers to allow children to go to school. For those employers who refuse the children to go to school, MSEMVS approaches local District Magistrate who may then send out labor inspectors and take legal action”

Our Freedom School opened in late spring, and there are currently 23 boys and 15 girls attending. There are two teachers.  We have secured funding for the school sponsorship portion of this project but are still fundraising for the other aspects of the project (community outreach, legal aid and income generation for women).

Immediate Goals
1. To educate 50 children who have been freed from bonded labor or impoverished conditions in the village of Firojpur .
2. To place these children into a fully functional school
* provide a mid-day meal
* provide health services
3. To prepare these children for the 5th grade level official exam so they can enter the state schools
4. To bring awareness to families in bonded labor regarding their exploitation by money lenders

Long Term Goals:
1. To eradicate bonded labor slavery from Chandauli District
2. To provide proper funding for the schools
3. To promote a gradual but profound change of the perception of debt bondage in these districts

The Emancipation Network supports women in some of the other villages that MSE has freed from slavery, by buying the lamp-worked glass bead jewelry which gives them an economic alternative to slavery. Check out some of their beautiful jewelry, in our webstore